The Trump administration's Department of Transportation has put an official end to a Biden administration proposal to require airlines to pay cash compensation to flyers for canceled and significantly delayed flights.
The move follows the Trump administration's September announcement that it would discard the proposal.
In a Federal Register filing withdrawing the proposal, the DOT said that such a requirement would exceed the authority granted by Congress in the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act.
The DOT also said that four of the largest U.S. airlines have already voluntarily committed to compensate flyers with vouchers or frequent-flyer miles for cancellations or significant delays. Significant delays are defined by the DOT as ones that last at least three hours for a domestic flight.
"Rather than issuing burdensome and complex new regulations not supported by data, the department is focusing its efforts on helping airlines improve performance for consumers through improvements to the national air space," the withdrawal notice reads, referencing Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's plan to complete a $31 billion overhaul of the U.S. air traffic control system by 2028. "DOT's efforts to increase the number of air traffic controllers and create a state-of-the-art, brand-new air control system will provide airlines a better operational environment to serve air travelers reliably."
Under the Biden administration proposal, cash compensation was to be required in cases of cancellations that were the fault of the airline and not caused by external factors such as weather. The rule was also to have applied to domestic delays of three hours or more. The proposal was put forward in early December 2024, by which time Donald Trump had been elected president.
The Biden administration was early enough in the rulemaking process that it had not developed a specific proposal on compensation amounts, though it was considering a tiered approach starting at between $200 and $300 for domestic delays of at least three hours. The Biden DOT was contemplating passenger payments of $375 to $525 for delays of at least six hours and between $750 and $775 for longer delays.